The Internet of Things (IoT) is turning traditional homes into high-tech havens. The most successful solutions allow consumers to start small. For instance, vendors offer lighting systems controlled remotely via your smartphone. As a separate package, they might offer a smoke detector that integrates with the lighting system, so lights flash to visually alert you of a fire.
当单独购买时，这些兼容的组件只能以几百美元的价格获得。一旦您开始看到初始投资的价值并有更多的钱可以花，您通常可以轻松地将它们集成到房屋的数字平台中。
That same basic principle is now applicable for a manufacturing execution system (MES). New, fit-for-purpose software applications are available that allow users to begin connecting their plant floor or operations technology (OT) with their information technology (IT) and enterprise systems for less than a fraction of the cost of a comprehensive MES.
Fit-for-purpose solutions can fill a gap for users that do not have large MES infrastructures, but need to improve areas from quality to yield to cost.
在开始一次构建MES一个应用程序之前，您必须制定集成计划，以确保所有部件最终都将连接。一旦拟合拟合的系统互相交谈并利用跨系统的数据，好处就会呈指数增长。
Silos vs. boiling the ocean
The introduction of low-cost computers and the ability to deploy digital systems for manufacturing led to new efficiencies in the 1990s. In the beginning, however, system designers did not pay heed to the future importance of integration. Because of this, many production operations today struggle with legacy applications that cannot easily talk to each other, creating communications silos.
为了推翻过去15年中的障碍，公司在制造业线上水平实施了单个软件解决方案，或者支付了小命运以整合不同的系统。尽管该方法已经简化了生产，但事实证明，成本已巨大，尤其是对于较小的制造商而言。现在，生产者可以真正地接受物联网运动的本质，可以采取模块化的方法来连接企业。
Step-by-step solutions
如果公司希望扩展到其他解决方案，则以分步的方式应用MES应用程序可以为增长开放。但是，扩展要求公司有一个计划和一个可以集成的平台。毕竟，一个启动小的项目更容易证明管理为管理。当应用于特定的MES函数时，结果显而易见，将其用于指出提高效率的具体证据。
Take, for example, a quality-management application. Instead of modeling and applying a proof-of-concept solution thinly across an MES, a modular, quality-management application can be rolled out for specific, quality data collection and elimination of paper-based reporting.
A key first step in your standardization plan is selecting products and vendors that comply with standards, such as ISA95. This will allow you to pick functionality from different vendors and ease future integration efforts. Just know that cross-vendor integration will never be as smooth as single-vendor integration.
The next step to consider is system design. For example, if you add a production management application to a system that already has quality management, you can pull data from several systems to improve operational procedures without the cost of additional data collection. Start with applications that share similar context for the best insights.
制造业正在进入新时代。由于捕获和使用有价值的数据，质量和效率正在提高。尽管连接系统的任务似乎令人生畏，但现在使用基于应用程序的方法有一个简单的起点。在您跳入之前，制定计划。您的远见将为您节省您的头痛。
> >基斯·麦克弗森an Americas board member at large for梅萨国际. He has more than 25 years of experience in the automation and information industry, in sales, marketing and business development as well as engineering positions. He also serves as global market development director of information management for Rockwell Automation.
